{"product_id":"9780691260761","title":"Playing Possum","description":"Author: Susana Mons\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9780691260761\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 01 Feb 2025\u003cbr\u003ePages: 264\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen the opossum feels threatened, she becomes paralysed. Her body temperature plummets, her breathing and heart rates drop to a minimum, and her glands simulate the smell of a putrefying corpse. \u003ci\u003ePlaying Possum\u003c\/i\u003e explores what the opossum and other creatures can teach us about how we and other species understand mortality, and demonstrates that the concept of death, far from being a uniquely human attribute, is widespread in the animal kingdom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith humour and empathy, Susana Mons tells the stories of ants who attend their own funerals, chimpanzees who clean the teeth of their dead, dogs who snack on their caregivers, crows who avoid the places where they saw a carcass, elephants obsessed with collecting ivory, and whales who carry their dead for weeks. Mons, one of today's leading experts on animal cognition and ethics, shows how there are more ways to conceive of mortality than the human way, and challenges the notion that the only emotional reactions to death worthy of our attention are ones that resemble our own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBlending philosophical insight with new evidence from behavioral science and comparative psychology, \u003ci\u003ePlaying Possum\u003c\/i\u003e dispels the anthropocentric biases that cloud our understanding of the natural world, and reveals that, when it comes to death and dying, we are just another animal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u0026amp;#x27;Mons upends our anthropocentric views of death and makes the case that other species possess the cognitive requirements to understand death and mortality.\u0026amp;#x27; \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eFrancisco J. Rivera Rosario,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Transmitter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46680683741342,"sku":"ADS-9780691260761","price":49.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9780691260761.jpg?v=1775543794","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9780691260761","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}